King Lear's Wife; The Crier by Night; The Riding to Lithend; Midsummer-Eve Part 36

DANAe, _faintly._ What is the end, ah me!

LAODICE. But in true Asia Great ladies must live veiled; they are too choice For foreign casual sight.

BARSINE, _veiling_ DANAe. This is the veil.

_LAODICE, peeping behind the veil._ Bound so beneath the eyes? Show slipper-tips?

Indeed you are ended, Danae, and shall part.

Farewell! Farewell! Fare delicately! Fare swiftly!

Will you go down by Ephesus, my rose; Or all the sea?

FIRST WOMAN. Not Babylon by sea!

LAODICE.

If not to Babylon, yet far enough.

Tie up these arms and bind these feet together; Bear to the columns and cast her forth to sea, Where she shall be my satrap of the darkness.

She has been dying many moments now, She shall have burial as one who ceases In a strange s.h.i.+p, unfriended on the deeps.

_The women laugh._

FIRST WOMAN.

Joy--but wherewith, O Light?

LAODICE. Your sandal-thongs: You are good enough to obey me on bare feet.

_Several of the women hastily untie their sandals._

FOURTH WOMAN, _kneeling to bind DANAe'S feet._ Forget not me to heel, my mighty lady.

VARIOUS WOMEN, _cl.u.s.tering about_ DANAe _and seizing her._ Come on, come on to Babylon, dread Madam....

Up and down to Babylon, cold Highness....

I'll be her coiffing slave and tend her head....

I'll be her nurse and hold her in my breast....

More humbly I will take her feet in mine....

What honour to be trusted with such life-- priceless load.... Ah, do not let it fall....

DANAe, _to_ LAODICE.

Yet I have served you well.

LAODICE. Yea, very well.

Whereto did Sophron flee?

DANAe. I do not know.

LAODICE.

Tell me why Sophron fled, and what he knew.

_A pause._

Tell even where your thoughts are following him.

_A pause._

Even at what point of my research in him Your heart lifted, and I will keep you back.

_A pause._

Then are you both completed and concluded.

Knot elbows too, and lift her to the columns.

DANAe.

Yet I have loved you.

LAODICE.

You are not mine: this earth shall not contain you.

I could unmake the stars to ensure darkness, To cheat me of the places that have known you.

DANAe.

Must I go out?

Then pay me for my spent devotion first.

Let not these spittly weeds close in and choke me; Undrape these silk and Asiatic jeers; Let me go loose, and I will go indeed As far as your desire--serving you yet.

_LAODICE, severing DANAe'S bonds with her dagger, then rending away her veil and upper garments._

Your rigid mortal bonds, ...

Your isolating veil, ...

Your scarf of earthly flowers, ...

Your robe that once was royal, ...

Your chill, worn-out simarre, Slide as the world slides....

Put off your useless shoes To enter a holy place....

Get to your high estate.

DANAe, _standing in her under-garment._ Gather your jewels.

LAODICE. You trifle to gain moments.

DANAe.

Give me one kiss.

LAODICE. You have not time. These wait.

_Indicating the surrounding women._

DANAe.

Your house shall be the firmer by your sentence.

_She takes the sleeping child in her arms, and mounts the stair quickly._

SEVERAL WOMEN.